Sessions Charges Ex-FBI Agent With Media Leaks

Minnesota's Terry Albury accused of giving documents to a reporter
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 29, 2018 9:31 AM CDT
Sessions Charges Ex-FBI Agent With Media Leaks
The FBI flag.   (Getty/zlajs)

A former FBI agent who allegedly shared secret documents with a national media organization has been charged months after Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to crack down on government leaks. Terry J. Albury, who was an agent in Minnesota, faces two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information. He was charged Tuesday by felony information, which typically indicates a defendant will plead guilty, per the AP. The charges allege Albury shared two documents with a reporter, including one dated Aug. 17, 2011, that relates to how the FBI assesses confidential informants. The other document, which is undated, pertains to "threats posed by certain individuals from a particular Middle Eastern country," according to the information.

The charges say Albury shared the documents sometime between February 2016 and Jan. 31, 2017. Prosecutors don't name a reporter or news organization, but on Jan. 31 of last year, The Intercept posted a story about how the FBI assesses and manages informants. The story references a secret document dated Aug. 17, 2011, that deals with assessing informants and recruiting them by identifying their "motivations and vulnerabilities." Albury's attorneys, JaneAnne Murray and Joshua Dratel, said in a statement that Albury "accepts full responsibility for the conduct set forth in the Information." They also said that as the only African-American FBI field agent in Minnesota, his actions were driven by a "conscientious commitment to long-term national security and addressing the well-documented systemic biases within the FBI."

(More FBI stories.)

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